


this kiss

by emmerrr



Series: winter wonderland [6]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First Kiss, M/M, Mistletoe, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:00:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22102198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmerrr/pseuds/emmerrr
Summary: “What are you even doing here?”Ronan half-bowed, his expression withering. “Happy helper elf, at your service.”Adam scoffed. “You’re the one who’s supposed to be helping me? Since when do you volunteer for anything?”“I didn’t volunteer,” Ronan sneered. “Detention.”“…Alright. Then since when do you bother to show up for detention?”“Since now,” Ronan said with a shrug, not meeting Adam’s eye.
Relationships: Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Series: winter wonderland [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1217862
Comments: 15
Kudos: 263





	this kiss

**Author's Note:**

> i had 3 pynch mistletoe requests so HERE merry belated christmas happy new year and all that my loves <3
> 
> (and yes you HAVE to read this while listening to 'this kiss' by faith hill)

Giving up his Saturday morning to help set up the assembly hall at Aglionby Academy for the alumni Christmas party that evening was not something Adam particularly relished the idea of. But doing this gained him another letter of recommendation for his college applications, so here he was, bright and early, sorting through a box of fairy lights and trying to untangle them.

He’d been fairly sure Headmaster Child had mentioned that someone else was supposed to be helping him, but so far, no one else had shown up apart from the head of the PTA who’d given him the key to the supplies closet and a brief outline of what he was expected to do. 

Around forty-five minutes after he’d arrived, Adam heard the bang of the big double doors behind him and turned. He took in the sight of Ronan Lynch in all his glory, stomping towards him, scowl firmly in place.

“Well good fucking morning,” he said, slinging himself into a nearby chair.

“Always a pleasure, Ronan,” Adam said. “What are you even _doing_ here?”

Ronan half-bowed, his expression withering. “Happy helper elf, at your service.”

Adam scoffed. “You’re the one who’s supposed to be helping me? Since when do you volunteer for anything?”

“I didn’t _volunteer,”_ Ronan sneered. “Detention.”

“…Alright. Then since when do you bother to show up for detention?”

“Since now,” Ronan said with a shrug, not meeting Adam’s eye. “Anyway, decorating for parties I’m not invited to sounds _exactly_ like my kind of fun.”

That made Adam smile. “Like you’d go to this thing even if you _were_ invited.”

“How true.” Ronan stood up with a languid stretch. “Okay then, give me a job. What are we doing?”

With Ronan’s help, hanging the lights no longer seemed like such an arduous task, so they did that first now that Adam had got them all untangled and checked that they were working.

Having Ronan there made it less of a chore somehow, and in fact made it sort of fun. Instead of spending the morning lamenting the fact that he’d had to give up a shift at Boyd’s, he was hanging out with a friend. A definite upgrade.

He’d never suggest it to Ronan, but Adam rather thought that the reason Ronan had bothered to show up to this detention at all was _him_. He’d noticed the looks, he’d noticed Ronan’s poorly practised disinterest, he’d noticed a thousand and one tiny little gestures that might not mean anything, apart from the fact that they meant everything.

How kind Ronan could be when he thought no one was paying any attention.

Of course, Adam could be reading into something that wasn’t even there. Perhaps it was best to continue to tread the fine line they were walking rather than upset the balance.

But Adam couldn’t stop thinking about Ronan, especially when he had given up his own Saturday morning on a school campus he hated, ostensibly just so he could keep Adam company.

He was sure Ronan would never _admit_ that. But he suspected it was true all the same.

After they’d finished the lights, they spent the next hour rearranging the furniture like it told Adam to in the little layout plan he’d been given. Luckily there was already a big Christmas tree set up in the corner of the room so they didn’t have to do that, but there were several wreathes in boxes that were supposed to be hung up on every door both in the hall and the corridor outside.

After that, there was very little left to do. There was still some tinsel in one of the boxes, so they draped some over the pictures that framed the walls.

“What do you think?” Adam asked when they’d finished.

Ronan wrinkled his nose. “Tacky. Tinsel is so seventies.”

Adam snorted. “Does it offend your modern sensibilities?”

“It does actually, Parrish, don’t make fun.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Adam said solemnly. The skin crinkled around Ronan’s eyes, an almost smile, and he elbowed Adam lightly in the side.

“Alright then, boss, what’s next.”

“Uhh, I don’t know, actually, I think that might be it,” Adam said, pulling the plan out of his pocket to look.

Ronan went over to the box where the wreathes had been kept. “Really? I’m sure there was something else in here... A- _ha._ Here we are.”

“What have we missed?” Adam asked, going over to join him.

Ronan pulled a bag out of the box and peered inside, then he looked up at Adam and raised his eyebrows. “Mistletoe.”

“What? Let me see.”

Adam took the bag from Ronan, and sure enough, inside were two different fake mistletoe flowers to hang up somewhere. Adam exchanged a look with Ronan. “What kind of party _is_ this?”

They both burst out laughing. “Fuck knows. Come on, let’s hang them up then we can get out of here.”

As there were two, they decided to hang them in opposite corners of the hall, Ronan holding onto the step ladder while Adam went up to hang them in place.

“You know,” Ronan said conversationally as they were fixing the last one in place, “when I was a kid I thought mistletoe was something I was really going to have to look out for.”

Adam grinned. “What do you mean?”

“Like, it’s the same with quicksand and whirlpools. Childhood movies had me believe they would be much bigger problems than they’ve turned out to be. I thought the same with mistletoe. I thought I’d always have to be on guard for it around the holidays, in case I got caught under it with someone I didn’t wanna kiss.”

“Well _that’s_ adorable.” Mistletoe now in place, Adam climbed down the step ladder. He leaned toward Ronan a little, resting his arms on the top rung. He felt brave. “And what about if you got caught under it with someone you _did_ want to kiss?”

His meaning was clear, and the look on Ronan’s face said that he understood. He took a hesitant step closer.

“That would be the opposite of a problem,” he said, voice hoarse, and reached out to cup Adam’s cheek.

Adam clutched a hand on Ronan’s sweater, and gently pulled him the rest of the way.

The kiss was gentler than he expected. Shy. Brief. But when they pulled away, Ronan let out a little sigh, and Adam smiled, and then it was the easiest and most natural thing in the world to collide together again.

When they finally stopped kissing, Ronan dropped his forehead onto Adam’s shoulder.

“Parrish, can we leave?” he asked.

Adam brought a hand up to run through the bristles of Ronan’s hair. “Sure. In a hurry?”

“Yeah. I just...I really wanna kiss you again and I don’t wanna do it at school.” He straightened up and glared at Adam, a comical look with his lips kiss-bitten and inviting. “I can’t believe you tricked me into kissing you at _school.”_

“Oh I tricked you now, huh?” Adam teased, folding up the step ladder. The faster they got out of here the better. “It wasn’t my fault, Lynch.”

“Well whose was it then?”

Adam pointed up in the corner, feeling giddy and excited. “There was mistletoe, Ronan. It’s the _law.”_

Ronan rolled his eyes. “Fuck the law,” he said as Adam locked the step ladder back in the supply closet.

He took the keys back to the office and then they walked at a fairly brisk pace into the parking lot. Adam just had his bike, which Ronan put in the back of the BMW without a word.

The minute they got out of the school gates, Ronan sped back to Monmouth, wrenching it into a space. The Pig was there, which meant Gansey was home, and Ronan made no sign of wanting to go up to the apartment.

Adam unbuckled his seatbelt and turned in his seat to face Ronan.

“Lynch.”

Ronan returned the look, eyes flashing. “Parrish.”

Adam looked around exaggeratedly. “No mistletoe in here. Shame...”

“We don’t need fucking _mistletoe_ you gigantic pain in the ass,” Ronan said with exasperated affection, and he closed the distance between them once more.

Adam thought that they weren’t treading their fine line anymore.

(He also thought that he didn’t care.)


End file.
